Instead of hoping that some day the boys' club will open its doors, we can form our own clubs, define 'worthy' our own way, and celebrate the books and voices that we decide deserve celebration.

Many writers secretly long to be performers. You always get the 'if you weren't a writer' question. I would be a back-up singer, to stand in the back and go like 'do, do, do.'

Money is a tremendous advantage in just about everything, but in terms of reproduction, if you're a poor woman and you are infertile, it's like too bad, so sad. And if you are a wealthy woman, you can kind of buy whatever you want.

My feeling about my own work is, I could be writing 'The Aeneid' and they would still have to call it chick lit or mommy lit or menopausal old hag lit.

Right now women are using surrogates because they can't be pregnant. What worries me is the possibility that soon they'll use surrogates because they don't want to be pregnant.

There's something really nice about writing something on Wednesday and watching it being performed live for a studio audience on Tuesday. You never really get that with novels.

Women are far and away the bigger consumers of fiction than men, but men are still far and away the more reviewed, the more critically esteemed, the more respected. That can get frustrating.

The difference between people who believe they have books inside of them and those who actually write books is sheer cussed persistence - the ability to make yourself work at your craft, every day - the belief, even in the face of obstacles, that you've got something worth saying.

Whenever people with money have power over people with less money, you have the potential for exploitation.

If you write chick lit, and if you're a New Yorker, and if your book becomes the topic of pop-culture fascination, the paper might make dismissive and ignorant mention of your book. If you write romance, forget about it. You'll be lucky if they spell your name right on the bestseller list.

Being a novelist is hard for anyone - male or female. You don't get to quit your day job.

Every mother I've ever met, pretty much without exception, is doing the best job she can ever do.

I also believe that if you're really a writer, you'll write, and that nobody could stop you.

I can carry a tune with a three-note range. Once I'm out of that range, I'm in trouble.

I don't particularly like being angry about stuff. I'd rather hang out with my daughter and write my little books.

I get really starstruck and tongue tied when I'm around other writers and the conversation tends not to go well.

I was an English major in college, took a ton of creative writing courses, and was a newspaper reporter for 10 years.

I went to Princeton, I minored in women's studies.

I wonder if novels work for women because they give us a safe place to talk about our ish.

I wrote my first books when I was single and then I got married and then had a kid and there were different things happening in my life.